FRANCISCO DE ZURBARAN


Contemporary and friend of Velazquez , Zurbaran excelled in religious painting , in which his art reveals a great visual strength and a deep mysticism. It was a representative artist of the Counter . Influenced in its beginnings by Caravaggio , his style evolved to approach the Italian Mannerist masters . Their performances away from the realism of Velazquez and his compositions are characterized by chiaroscuro modeling with more acid tones

Francisco de Zurbaran was born on November 7, 1598 in Fuente de Cantos (Badajoz). Their parents were Luis de Zurbaran, a wealthy Basque trader established in Extremadura since 1582.1 Marquez and Isabel, who had married in the nearby town of Monesterio on 10 January 1588. Two other important painters of the Golden Age they would be born shortly after : Velázquez (1599-1660) and Alonso Cano (1601-1667). Probably began in the pictorial art in the school of Juan de Roelas, in his hometown, before entering in 1614 in the studio of painter Pedro Diaz de Villanueva (1564-1654), in Seville, where she met Alonso Cano in 1616. he probably also became acquainted with Francisco Pacheco and his students, as well as having some influence from Sanchez Cotan as it can be seen in the Still life Zurbarán painted around 1633. His apprenticeship was completed in 1617, the year in which Zurbarán married Maria Paez. The first table is cited as the beginning of his career he is an Immaculate believed 1616 (collection of Placido Arango), but the actual date is 1656 and, in fact, reveals influences of Titian and Guido Reni, own the last stage of the artist in Madrid. In 1617 he settled in Llerena, Extremadura, where their three children were born: Mary, John (Llerena 1620-Sevilla 1649) (which was a painter, like his father, and died during the great plague occurred in Seville in 1649), and Isabel Paula. After the death of his wife, he remarried in 1625 with Beatriz de Morales, a widow with a good economic position, although ten years older than him, as his first wife. In 1622 he was already a recognized painter, so he was hired to paint an altarpiece for a church in his hometown. In 1626 and notarized, he signed a new contract with the community of preachers of the order dominica San Pablo el Real, in Seville; twenty had to paint pictures in eight months. It was then, in 1627, when he painted the Christ on the cross, the work was so admired by his contemporaries that the Municipal Council of Seville officially proposed in 1629, which establishes his residence in this Spanish city. In this picture the relief impression is surprising; Christ is nailed to a rough wooden cross. White, bright canvas, which encircles the waist, with a deft baroque--and draping style, contrasts dramatically with well formed flexible muscles and your body. His face leans over the right shoulder. Suffering, unbearable, it gives way to a last wish: Resurrection, last thought towards a promised life in which the body, tortured until the debilitation but already glorious demonstrates visually. As in the crucified Christ of Velázquez (painted towards 1630, more rigid and symmetrical), the feet are nailed separately. At that time, the works, sometimes monumental, tried to recreate morbidly at the crucifixion; hence the number of nails. For example, in the Revelations of St. Bridget is spoken of four nails. Moreover, after the Tridentine decrees, the spirit of the Counter opposed to large stagings, especially guiding the artists towards the compositions in which it is represented only Christ. Many theologians argued that both the body of Jesus like Mary had to be a perfect bodies. Zurbarán learned well these lessons, affirming, at twenty years as an undisputed master.

Uxía Pensado 2ºB